From Pyramids to Circles - the ancient Egyptian influence

Written by David Rankine, First published in Witchcraft & Wicca magazine

You may wonder what ancient Egyptian magick has to do with Wicca? The answer is a lot. Many modern magickal practices can be seen to draw their roots from ancient Egyptian practices, and Wicca is no exception to this. Ancient Egypt was known as the "Mother of Magicians", and has influenced most magickal traditions that have developed since then.

The culture of ancient Egypt flourished from the period around 3100 BCE when the first dynasty was founded, until around 395 CE when Roman rule ended. However the pre-dynastic period extends back to around 5500 BCE, so we really are stretching our roots far back into the mists of pre-history.

A common Wiccan practice that is perhaps unexpectedly found in ancient Egypt is the use of a broom to sweep the sacred space before rituals. Whilst the popular image of the witch with broom is associated with medieval Witchcraft, brooms have been with us for a very long time. As well as sweeping with a broom, water was also sometimes sprinkled on the floor, as is still done today in Wicca with the consecrated salt water.

Likewise, whilst many cultures have used incense, it was the ancient Egyptians who really made the use of fragrance in ritual sacred. Their use of incense for all their ceremonies, because it was "pleasing to the Gods" can be seen as the template for subsequent uses, including that in Wicca.

Another Egyptian practice that has found popularity in modern Wicca is the use of knotted threads and ribbons. The Egyptians used these in several ways. Knotted red threads were sometimes called "Anubis threads", and were used for protection from negative forces and entities.

Knotted red ribbons were also tied in the hair of expectant mothers to protect their unborn children and ease their childbirth. This was done under the auspices of the protective cow goddess Hathor, in her aspect of the Seven Hathors. These powerful goddesses were appealed to for a blessing of good fate on the newborn child, and the ribbons given to the child for subsequent protection from poisons and dangerous spirits. They were also sometimes used in love magick.

Poppets, or manikin figures, were used by the ancient Egyptians for both healing and cursing. For the former they were used to represent the body of the ill person, which could then be healed. For cursing they were usually reserved for enemies of the state, such as foreign armies.

The use of colour in magick and Wicca can also be seen to draw its roots from the Egyptian attributions. Black was the colour of night and death, yet it could also be used for healing, as was the case with healing statues from the Ptolemaic period of Egyptian history.

Blue as the colour of heaven and water is so obvious to us now that we take it for granted, but we see these attributions coming to the fore in Egypt. In the same way we think of green as a colour of life and fertility due to its prevalence in nature around us, but this is another Egyptian attribution. The Egyptians used the term "to do green things" to refer to good deeds, and the afterlife was also associated with the colour green as the "fields of malachite".

Red was the colour of blood and fire to the Egyptians, but it could also represent both the sun, and also danger and chaos. All these attributions are ones which are now standard to us today. Yellow (and gold) also represented the sun, and symbolised constancy and eternity, as the sun was a manifestation of the sun god Ra, and hence eternal.

White as the colour of sacredness and purity is the last of the main colour attributions used by the Egyptians. White stones like alabaster and marble were used for making many of the sacred ritual objects. To "wear white sandals" was a euphemism for the priesthood.

Several of the magickal tools used in Wicca found prominence in ancient Egypt. The Egyptians used a number of different kinds of wand, for example. They used apotropaic (evil-averting) wands made of ivory for drawing protective circles on the floor and for commanding and banishing negative creatures.

Rods of ebony or glazed soapstone were used as a symbol of authority, and were also used for commanding spiritual creatures. Egyptian magicians also used wands made in the shape of serpents, representing magickal power. Sceptres such as the Sekhem were used for command, and also waved over objects to bless them.

Postures and movements from ancient Egypt have also found their way into Wicca. The crossed arm position assumed by the High Priestess for Drawing Down the Moon, where she bears the wand and scourge in her hands, is known as the Osiris position due to it being drawn from the statue images of the underworld god Osiris.

The Egyptians always moved sunwise (deosil) in their rituals, as they believed that to move against the direction of the sun (widdershins) was to give power to the forces of chaos that strove to overcome the natural order of creation, which they strove to preserve. Again this practice can be seen in modern Wicca.

The creation of the magick circle played a part in many Egyptian ceremonies, and the same principles are still applied today. This concept was discussed in Heka: The Practices of Ancient Egyptian Ritual & Magick:

"Indeed a temple dedication ritual at Edfu has the priests circumambulating the temple to purify it, protect it from external forces and delimit its sacred space and cosmic geometry. Ultimately this circumambulation is expressed of course by the journey of Re in his solar barque each day."

Not only did the Egyptians create magick circles, but they also sometimes had guardians on the four quarters. Unlike the Elemental guardians of Wicca, these were usually four goddesses, but nonetheless the principle of quarter guardians can be seen to have originated with the Egyptians.

Food and wine were always offered to the gods in Egyptian ceremonies. These were presented to statues which had been prepared as vessels for the gods to manifest their energy through (using the "Opening of the Mouth" ceremony). The offerings were subsequently eaten by the priests after the gods had partaken of the subtle essence of the offerings. Today we always offer some of the cakes and wine to the goddess and god, and then consume the rest, echoing this ancient practice.

It is not just Egyptian practices that have been incorporated into modern magick, but philosophies as well. The modern concept of being "between the worlds" draws from the Egyptian concept of there being no time when within a sacred space. This was because stepping into a sacred space was seen as returning to the beginning of time, to enable the priest to tap into the energies of creation.

This is expressed very clearly by the religious historian Mircea Eliade, who wrote in his book The Sacred and the Profane that, "by its very nature sacred time is reversible in the sense that, properly speaking, it is a primordial mythical time made present. Every religious festival, any liturgical time, represents the reactualisation of a sacred event that took place in a mythical past, 'in the beginning'."

With sacred space also came the idea of sacred geometry. The Egyptians celebrated the East as the place of beginnings, where the sun god Ra rose from his nightly underworld journey, to sail through the heavens on his solar barque. So too do Wiccans see the East as the place of beginnings. Conversely, the West, where the sun sets, was the place of the underworld (Amenti) to the Egyptians. This view of the West as the place of death has continued through many cultures to modern day.

The North-South axis has similarly continued to hold the associations given by the Egyptians. The South, as the place of the ferocious midday sun, is now seen as being the place for the element of Fire. The midnight mystery of the North has remained so throughout the centuries.

From the Egyptian mysteries also comes the concept of the great goddess. The Roman historian Apuleius was a devotee of the goddess Isis. In his novel The Golden Ass, he has Isis describe herself as the goddess of whom all others are aspects. This perception of a universal goddess, who manifests in many different aspects, has become one of the main philosophies of theology within Wicca.

Through the writings of Apuleius we can also see parallels between ancient and modern initiation rites. As a sacred mystery and transformation to be part of the initiated group, inevitably there will be similarities between any initiations. However it is interesting to note the use of the term "spiritual birthday", as is also done in Wicca. As Eliade observed in Rites and Symbols of Initiation:

"On the occasion of his initiation into the mysteries of Isis, Apuleius suffered a 'voluntary death' and 'approached the realm of death' to obtain his 'spiritual birthday' (natalem sacrum)."

A final similarity between ancient Egyptian practice and that of modern Wicca may be seen in the books of magick. The ancient Egyptian priests served one third of the year in the temple of their patron deity. The rest of the time they were free to act as magicians in the community. During this time they could be approached for spells to deal with problems.

The Egyptian magician would work from a book containing magick spells and also descriptions of the myths, the original proto-Book of Shadows. These books, such as "The Book of the Heavenly Cow", were ferociously guarded and never shown to anyone outside the priesthood, less the uninitiated should profane the magick within.

Such spells were usually chanted, and generally repeated a specific number of times to have their full efficacy (usually four or seven times). Again we see the modern parallel of spells being empowered through repetition findings its roots set firmly in the Egyptian past.

Egyptian magick has an enduring appeal, and we still have much to learn from the practices of the ancients. If you are interested in learning more, about the ancient Egyptian worldview, symbolism and magickal practices, see "Heka: The Practices of Ancient Egyptian Ritual & Magick".

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Also see:

1 Heka - The Practices of Ancient Egyptian Ritual & Magick - David Rankine, Avalonia, 2005
2 Rites and Symbols of Initiation - Mircea Eliade, 1958, p112